The battle for the Democratic nomination is just the latest in hotly-contested presidential elections. After Bush's purely technical defeat of Al Gore, followed by a narrow win over John Kerry, no one should be surprised that landslides are culturally antiquated. Current polls suggest the Clinton/Obama race is in a virtual dead-heat, at least with the popular vote.
Have we really become so incapable of critical thinking that we think only in binary colors? Or are the last few elections markers of an electoral system that has fallen out of step with technology?
Can someone please tell me how, in this new age of information glut, ANYTHING but the popular vote should determine who is president?
Monday, April 28, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Shakedown
I work with a lot of advertising agencies. One of them is very prestigious. We recently hosted one of the lead Mergers and Acquisitions guys from their parent company.
Slightly doctored transcript from the meeting:
Us: This is what we do, do you like it?
Them: Very much, we're impressed with your organization. Would you like to be introduced to all of the agencies we own?
(SFX champage corks, three grown men sobbing tears of joy, backslapping.)
Us: Um. Yes.
Them: Great, let's put together a draft of a more strategic relationship.
Yesterday, after three months of daily negotiations, lots of projects and countless meetings I received a draft of that agreement. Here's the gist of it:
We:
- Give them dedicated resources to build solutions
- Give them the right to kick us out of any deals they choose
- Pay them $300K per year
They:
- Maybe bring us into deals
I know this is only the opening salvo in negotiations and I shouldn't get too worked up. But this tactic is like kidnapping someone, holding them hostage in a basement for six months, feeding them only bread and water, and then asking them how many appendages they would lop off with a butter knife in exchange for being released, and calling it negotiation.
I wonder, for $400K/year do you get fries?
Slightly doctored transcript from the meeting:
Us: This is what we do, do you like it?
Them: Very much, we're impressed with your organization. Would you like to be introduced to all of the agencies we own?
(SFX champage corks, three grown men sobbing tears of joy, backslapping.)
Us: Um. Yes.
Them: Great, let's put together a draft of a more strategic relationship.
Yesterday, after three months of daily negotiations, lots of projects and countless meetings I received a draft of that agreement. Here's the gist of it:
We:
- Give them dedicated resources to build solutions
- Give them the right to kick us out of any deals they choose
- Pay them $300K per year
They:
- Maybe bring us into deals
I know this is only the opening salvo in negotiations and I shouldn't get too worked up. But this tactic is like kidnapping someone, holding them hostage in a basement for six months, feeding them only bread and water, and then asking them how many appendages they would lop off with a butter knife in exchange for being released, and calling it negotiation.
I wonder, for $400K/year do you get fries?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
No Longer In the Clouds, In Rainbows
Like any respectable thirty something white male douchebag in this country, I have at one point proclaimed Radiohead to be my favorite band. In my sphere of influence, most people who say Radiohead is their favorite band are douchebags, and I certainly was no exception. I looked askance at anyone else who claimed to be a Radiohead fan - knowing the words to High and Dry or Creep did not impress me; I raise you Knives out and Bulletproof. Radiohead is the douchebag correct answer to several party questions:
* What is your favorite band? It’s a band
* What kind of music do you listen to? It’s a genre too
* What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Oooh Ahhhh, yes, you can still touch me, for a price
* What band would you most like to see live? Again, of course, seeing as how I travel regularly to see them
* Who would you like to see run for President? We are president, fuck the soda can house of cards sun adultress.
Answer Radiohead to any of those questions, accompany it with a knowing nod and you have the formula for smug douchebaggery.
Though I liked Creep, I was late to the cool guy game with “Pablo Honey,” having spent too much time doing bong hits to Cypress Hill and Snoop Dog to get too riled up about people who play instruments. “The Bends” got me. I loved every track on that album, in particular the epic, weepy Bulletproof, which became a personal anthem of blistering self-loathing for about five years. When “OK Computer” was released, I was initially hesitant: this wasn’t screeching guitars, rocking Radiohead, this was techno-geeky weird Radiohead. It took me awhile, but eventually I came around and now consider it the penultimate Radiohead album, one of the finest rock albums ever produced.
I figured my initial negative appraisal of their next album “Kid A” would give way to adulation – you Radiohead boys tricked me again! I waited for the punchline for months. Finally I accepted that, like any parent of multiples, I really did love some more than others. In the end I found Kid A to be difficult, with only a couple noteworthy tracks. I don’t suppose I was much different than lots of Radiohead fans who embraced the album as an exploration of something new. To appreciate the album was to sign on with the Lewis and Clark of the new musical world, even if you didn’t realize that you’d end up spending a lot of time in the swamps of Mississippi before bedding a hot Indian girl.
Same with "Amnesiac," though I liked it even less than "Kid A." More exploration, not enough melody.
"Hail to the Thief" felt like a joke. On me. My reward for a decade of worship was an odd collection of incompatible sounds and relentless Thom Yorke whining. Goodwill had me stopping short of calling it unlistenable, but I hated it so much that it discolored the body of their work. It was like finding out your best friend sometimes kills puppies for sport. You really can’t move on from that.
I recently picked up “In Rainbows," in part because I was utterly enthralled with the distribution model – you could buy it directly from the band for whatever price you wanted (for a limited time), but also because I was hopeful the long layoff would result in the band returning to something approaching acoustically pleasing. “In Rainbows” is delicious. Each track is highly enjoyable, and most are downright positive. All I Need is stunningly perfect. The construction starts simply with minimal percussion and a paradoxically bone stirring, yet soothing base line. Adding Yorke's restrained vocals a bit later, the song builds steam. Just when you think the crescendo is about to set it all loose, a Xylophone is added and the song is reduced to its simplest form, only to start the process all over again and finish with a delicious combination of drums, guitar, bass, smashing cymbals and Yorke's hypnotic voice. I can't think of a single thing I'd change about it.
I'm still not ready to let Radiohead pick up the mantle of "favorite band," but I'm glad I'm back they're back.
* What is your favorite band? It’s a band
* What kind of music do you listen to? It’s a genre too
* What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Oooh Ahhhh, yes, you can still touch me, for a price
* What band would you most like to see live? Again, of course, seeing as how I travel regularly to see them
* Who would you like to see run for President? We are president, fuck the soda can house of cards sun adultress.
Answer Radiohead to any of those questions, accompany it with a knowing nod and you have the formula for smug douchebaggery.
Though I liked Creep, I was late to the cool guy game with “Pablo Honey,” having spent too much time doing bong hits to Cypress Hill and Snoop Dog to get too riled up about people who play instruments. “The Bends” got me. I loved every track on that album, in particular the epic, weepy Bulletproof, which became a personal anthem of blistering self-loathing for about five years. When “OK Computer” was released, I was initially hesitant: this wasn’t screeching guitars, rocking Radiohead, this was techno-geeky weird Radiohead. It took me awhile, but eventually I came around and now consider it the penultimate Radiohead album, one of the finest rock albums ever produced.
I figured my initial negative appraisal of their next album “Kid A” would give way to adulation – you Radiohead boys tricked me again! I waited for the punchline for months. Finally I accepted that, like any parent of multiples, I really did love some more than others. In the end I found Kid A to be difficult, with only a couple noteworthy tracks. I don’t suppose I was much different than lots of Radiohead fans who embraced the album as an exploration of something new. To appreciate the album was to sign on with the Lewis and Clark of the new musical world, even if you didn’t realize that you’d end up spending a lot of time in the swamps of Mississippi before bedding a hot Indian girl.
Same with "Amnesiac," though I liked it even less than "Kid A." More exploration, not enough melody.
"Hail to the Thief" felt like a joke. On me. My reward for a decade of worship was an odd collection of incompatible sounds and relentless Thom Yorke whining. Goodwill had me stopping short of calling it unlistenable, but I hated it so much that it discolored the body of their work. It was like finding out your best friend sometimes kills puppies for sport. You really can’t move on from that.
I recently picked up “In Rainbows," in part because I was utterly enthralled with the distribution model – you could buy it directly from the band for whatever price you wanted (for a limited time), but also because I was hopeful the long layoff would result in the band returning to something approaching acoustically pleasing. “In Rainbows” is delicious. Each track is highly enjoyable, and most are downright positive. All I Need is stunningly perfect. The construction starts simply with minimal percussion and a paradoxically bone stirring, yet soothing base line. Adding Yorke's restrained vocals a bit later, the song builds steam. Just when you think the crescendo is about to set it all loose, a Xylophone is added and the song is reduced to its simplest form, only to start the process all over again and finish with a delicious combination of drums, guitar, bass, smashing cymbals and Yorke's hypnotic voice. I can't think of a single thing I'd change about it.
I'm still not ready to let Radiohead pick up the mantle of "favorite band," but I'm glad I'm back they're back.
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